The Importance Of Alzheimer's Disease

Introduction Cells are building units of life and perform very important functions in our body. It takes in nutrients and convert it to energy and carry out specialized functions. Cell consists of many organelles which perform various functions. One of the main organelles is mitochondria where cellular respiration to produce energy to regulate cellular metabolism. Per Wang and D. Brinton (2016), mitochondrial DNA undergoes mutation at a higher rate and its repair mechanism is very limited which leads to mitochondrial disease. Mitochondrial diseases result from deficiencies and in the protein which play important role in electron transfer chain. Mitochondrial dysfunction causes damage to brain, heart, kidneys and muscle etc. since these organs need large amount of energy to perform specific functions. Articles I chose address mitochondrial dysfunction and how it can lead to major and deadly diseases such as; Alzheimer disease and
Brinton (2016) study suggests that “multiple neurodegenerative diseases are associated with decline in mitochondrial function, e.g., Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and multiple neuropathies” (p. 1); implies that mitochondria perform very important function to keep our brain healthy and functional. Alzheimer is a progressive neurodegenerative disease is most common cause of adult dementia. One of the reasons of Alzheimer’s disease is that brain doesn’t receive enough oxygen due to mitochondrial dysfunction. APOE4 genotype are carriers prone to Alzheimer’s disease since “has been associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and glucose hypometabolism in brain” (Wang and D. Brinton, 2016, p.7). APOE4 fragments cause mitochondrial dysfunction because it can interact with mitochondria directly which is one of the causes of neurotoxicity. Wang and D. Brinton (2016) research suggests that women are at higher risk of Alzheimer disease since some mitochondrial genetic variances associated with AD only found in